The Butterfly Tide
by Kellifer
Summary: Stranded in the past, everything you do sets a tiny ripple in motion. JackSam Team dynamic. STORY COMPLETE
1. Ripple 1

Rating: Chapter 1 Parental Guidance

Disclaimer: DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and  
places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret   
Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment No monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognised characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.  
In a nutshell - enjoy but don't sue.

Warnings - Set at end of S8.

----

He is screaming as he runs forward and is bodily tackled to the ground. He almost makes it to his feet before others join the fray. For a second he thinks he is going to be torn limb from limb in some kind of mass hysteria and is pathetically grateful because that means he won't be left alone.

The hands that are everywhere pinning him to the sand, on his legs, back and arms are gentle but firm. Daniel looks sideways and a child of about four years old is leaning on his bicep with her full weight, her eyes dark and grim.

He screams again and the crowd surges around him, taking up their own ululations to mask his desperate thrashing and ragged cries. He struggles mightily, but every time he throws off a body, another is there in its place. He is manhandled onto his back to avoid his face being pressed into the ground and gentle hands frame his face, a dark haloed head entering his field of vision. The woman above him could have been Sha're's sister.

Same heart-shaped face

Same dark eyes.

As the first staff blast echoes Daniel lets out a ragged sob. They're not even letting him bear witness.

Long fingers stroke his cheeks, trailing through the tears and sweat mingled together and a voice tries to soothe him.

"Don't cry Dan-yel, don't cry."

xxxxxx

"Uh, Jack, you should say something here." Daniel reached out and snagged the sleeve of Jack's robe, pulling him onscreen.

With his most put-upon expression he relented. "Um, college football is played on Saturdays; pro on Sundays; and there are no fish in my pond...at all ... where I fish." Jack looked wryly at both Sam and Daniel.

"Uh, I think that covers it for me."

There is a click and Teal'c lowered the camera, carefully packing it back into its carry bag. Daniel, being concerned about the amount of battery left, had volunteered to make the last entry alone. Jack having currently exhausted the jokes about what he'd rather see on the tape, shrugged and wandered back to the pile of roughly woven rugs and stuffed cushions that was currently serving as their couch.

"Do you really think anyone's going to find this?" He gestured vaguely toward the camera bag and the wrapped item beside it, the hard-won ZPM.

"We have to try, Sir. We may not be able to take it ourselves so this is the best way." Sam scratched at her neck, the fabric she was currently swaddled in head to toe irritating the hell out of her skin. She was used to being covered from neck to ankle but had never felt so swamped by clothing in her life.

She watched, amused, as Jack had to stand and adjust his own robe as it had twisted around when he'd plopped into their makeshift couch. They had already had the 'knees-together-when-sitting' discussion since there was only so many days a man could wear the same pair of underwear in a row and Jack had opted for going commando before any of the others.

Daniel was currently still vowing bloody vengeance against her for making him broach that particular subject.

Sam turned her smile to Daniel, who had retrieved the camera and was finishing the tape. There was the telltale beeping of the battery running out and Daniel finally cursed, retrieving it from Teal'c who had been again playing cameraman.

"We covered everything?" Jack asked.

"I think so." Daniel said, packing the camera away for the final time.

"Did you mention the ship?"

"Yes Jack."

"The ZPM."

"Yes Jack."

"The other -"

"Jack!" Daniel barked, pulling the straps on the camera bag tight.

Jack held up his hands in a placatory gesture, grinning.

xxxxxx

"I thought we'd decided, Air force and then NASA." Jacob Carter had his arms crossed over his chest, looking at his daughter with patient exasperation.

"I just... I can't explain it but... I've changed my mind."

Jacob watched his daughter, troubled. NASA had been her dream, ever since she was a little girl. He had also been hoping that the Air force would knock all the gangly awkwardness out of her. She was a beautiful girl when she wasn't fidgeting or slouching, both of which she was currently doing.

Sam had a way of pulling back into herself, like a child hiding under the covers to escape the monster in the closet.

"What's going on with you lately? You seem different."

Sam was picking at her nails. He'd tried to break her of the habit when she was little but had never been successful.

It drove him nuts.

"I just can't." She said, her voice soft.


	2. Ripple 2

Rating: Chapter 1 Parental Guidance

Disclaimer: DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and  
places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret  
Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment No monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognised characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.  
In a nutshell - enjoy but don't sue.

Warnings - Set at end of S8.

----

They had found Daniel three days after the executions, wandering through the desert. No one had seen him steal away in the dead of night. Grief had temporarily driven all sense from his mind and now thirst had taken care of any remaining shred of self-preservation he might have had.

Carried back to the small tent city by a large and silent man named Ahred, Daniel is placed in a bed and given a little water to drink. He curls in on himself when the water cramps start even though he has only had a little. When they finally pass he is allowed a small measure more.

A few hours later he wakes, and the same four year old girl that helped pin him down is now standing by his bed, a small hand curled around his index finger. He dredges her name from somewhere in the depths of him mind.

"What are you doing up Cali?" With a start he realises he's asked the question in Goa'uld and is worried it would frighten her, but she simply smiles and responds in kind.

"You snore."

There is a great sadness with large teeth that has threatened to devour him whole, but just for a moment, he smiles.

xxxxxx

"I said it's hot!"

"I know that, I was ignoring you." Daniel had a map out, hand drawn by one of the villagers, which showed Apophis' pyramid and the surrounding areas. He was looking for possible places that the Jaffa would have moved the puddle jumper. If they were going to try and take it back when the people rose up against Apophis, they had to first make sure they knew where it was and that it wouldn't be taken somewhere else.

Sam sat on the other side, and looked up, smiling indulgently as Jack continued to tug on Daniel's robes. She could see Daniel's brows draw down in readiness for an all out explosion. Jack was hot and uncomfortable and considering Daniel had taken to the weather and clothing with practiced ease, Jack was aiming to at least keep the archeologist annoyed as compensation.

Sam supposed she should intervene before there was bloodshed.

"Apparently there's a nice spot that's about an hour from here. Large body of still water with no fish. It'd be just like home for you. Want to check it out?"

"Yes!" Jack almost leapt off the pile of cushions he'd been sitting on.

Daniel treated Sam to a relieved and thankful smile.

Two hours later Sam and Jack found themselves in a small oasis. Sam marveled at how grass and trees rose up to encircle the small pool of water, defying the odds and finding root in the sandy soil that surrounded them. There were a number of other locals collecting water, cleaning clothes and gathering grasses and leaves. Sam felt a pang of guilt for simply being there to enjoy a brief respite from the heat. So far, the locals had been clothing and feeding them without complaint but Sam knew if their stay became extended, they would have to learn to fend for themselves.

They were lucky to have Teal'c and Daniel who were used to such conditions and how to live in them.

For now, Sam was happy to play referee with the ongoing battle between Daniel and Jack and have some quality time with all three of her boys. She was still positive that they would be able to make it back to their own time and wanted to treat their recent predicament as more of an extended vacation. So lost in her thoughts, she didn't know Jack was right behind her until his arms wrapped around her waist and lifted her off her feet.

"Sir!" She yelped. She started to struggle in earnest when she realised she was being carried in the direction of the water.

"I don't know if it's you or the robes but something reeks, Carter. Time for a bath!" Jack had reached the edge and waded forward until the water was around his knees. He swung back, ready to pitch Sam into the lake and she grabbed a fistful of his robe. Her momentum when released pulled him forward and down and they both ended up going in, head first.

Sam rose, shoving a handful of wet hair out of her eyes. Jack was floating on the surface, flat on his back and with his hands folded on his chest, as if he'd been floating for hours. He bobbed gently with the ripples that played across the surface. A couple of the locals had watched them quizzically for a while, but had resumed their work, ignoring those they obviously thought were crazy.

Sam stood and the water was at a level with her hip. She looked down at herself and the gauzy material of the robe clung to her frame. She felt heat bloom on her cheeks and then looked up.

Jack was regarding her with one eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face.

"So how long before this uprising eh?" He asked, also bringing his feet to the sandy bottom. When he rose, all Sam could see was that he was a lot thinner than she remembered. She missed her BDUs but not how they hid what was happening to a person's body.

The first year Daniel had been back from Abydos he had pretty much stopped eating and was subsisting mostly on coffee. He'd been able to hide how thin he was getting with the baggy jackets and camouflage pants. It had only been when Janet had voiced concern to Jack that they had realised. Jack had told Sam how he had cornered Daniel in the locker room and had been shocked that the man's ribs were visible, the skin stretched taut over them.

Sam wondered how long Jack had been losing weight, and why.

xxxxxxxx

-1996-

Click, snick. Click, snick.

Safety on.

Safety off.

Safety on.

A gentle tap at the door interrupted his thoughts. He looked up from the bed he was sitting on, gun still cradled in his lap. For a second Jack could have sworn he saw an Air Force Officer in his doorway, cap held under one arm, but he blinked and the vision was gone and it was Sara was on the threshold, watching him with a troubled expression.

"Jack, I can't do this anymore." She said softly, her eyes straying to the gun in his hand and growing glassy.

For a second he nearly did it, right in front of her. His hand even tightened on the grip.

She'd been through enough.

She didn't deserve more horror.

"I'll go." He said, his voice flat.


	3. Ripple 3

Rating: Chapter 3 Parental Guidance

Disclaimer: DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and  
places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret  
Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment No monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognised characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.  
In a nutshell - enjoy but don't sue.

Warnings - Set at end of S8.

XXXXXXXX

"We were able to retrieve these."

Daniel feels the gentle weight of three sets of dog-tags drop into his outstretched palm.

It's more than he hoped for.

"Thanks." He says simply, curling his fingers around the cool metal.

xxxxxx

There was a tapping sound interspersed with cursing that led Sam to Jack's location. She'd been told by one of the local children that he had gone inside the smallest of the temples. She had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders against the relative cool of the morning and when she rounded a corner, for a moment she thought she was looking at Daniel's back, the pose so familiar. It was actually Jack bent over a wall, two sharpened stones in his hands. He was chipping away at the wall under the watchful eye of a boy named Arackei, who had voraciously sought out Daniel to teach him English and had picked it up with a speed that even astounded their resident linguist.

Arackei looked back and raised a grubby hand in greeting to Sam. Jack started and then stood quickly, moving in front of his work. "Watcha up to?" Sam asked, one brow arching in curiosity.

"It's not ready yet. You'll see soon." Jack promised, stalking towards her and taking one elbow in hand, propelling her out of the cool depths. She could hear Arackei's chuckle as she was escorted outside. She supposed whatever Jack was working on, it was better than his boredom beating past time of annoying Daniel.

Outside again, Sam shrugged the blanket free from her shoulders. It had been two months and she still wasn't used to the way the temperature jumped from night to day so quickly. She'd gotten a pretty bad flu after the first month from the constant shifting from freezing cold to blistering heat and was only just now getting over the worst of it. She felt a warm hand on her shoulder and looked sideways. Jack's thumb brushed her collarbone.

The touch would have been sensual if not paired with the concerned frown on his face.

"That flu really knocked you around. You've lost a lot of weight." He admonished.

Sam jabbed him in the belly. "You're one to talk. You're nothing but skin and bones." Jack still retained a lean muscle on his frame but nothing else. His cheeks had hollowed out, revealing dark planes and shadows that worried Sam immensely. She knew he hadn't been sleeping much either.

It amazed Sam that out of the four of them, Daniel was currently the most hale and healthy. Sam had gotten to the point where looking after him was so ingrained that she still wasn't used to seeing him capable and at ease, even though he had been for years now. He positively flourished in the desert setting and Sam thought wistfully of a young Daniel Jackson on archeological digs, his ideals still intact and none of the horrors of the past nine years yet visited on him to set permanent creases in his brow.

Teal'c was also still doing well, but the extra supply of Tretonin they had brought was running low. The Jaffa had maybe two weeks left even with the most careful rationing of his medication. They'd all been dwelling in a kind of denial fugue that would have to stop.

The toll on Jack, however, was the most visible. Having sat by and watched Katep's brother shot to death in front of them without lifting a hand to help him had cut Jack more deeply than any of them. Katep had been a constant shadow to Daniel ever since and it seemed that the boy's acceptance and forgiveness was a worse cross to bear than his hatred. The Jaffa's daily raids and the screams they could hear on the night breeze made Sam itch and she knew it was worse for Jack.

She didn't know how much longer either he or Teal'c would put up with living the way they had been.

Jack was a deft hand at changing the subject. "The first person I ever killed, it was self defense."

"Really?" Sam sputtered. She knew Jack's statement, way out of left field, was an attempted deflection to her worry about his health, but her interest was also perked. She mentally reminded herself to check what he ate that night and start in on him again if it wasn't enough.

"No, not really. Daniel's been asking a lot of questions though and I..." Jack made a helpless gesture with his hand.

"Sir, you've known each other for nine years. He's saved your life, you've saved his life..."

"I know all that. Just... don't contradict me if he asks."

"What is the truth?" Sam couldn't help diving for the opening she'd been given. Jack rarely talked about his past and she could understand why Daniel was taking the time they had together to try and get him to open up. He'd been doing the same with Teal'c. She knew Teal'c had actually been allowing Daniel to pry and was using the time to heal some old wounds. Daniel had been frustrated that Jack was effectively blocking his attempts, without truly understanding that it wasn't because Jack didn't appreciate the gesture, but that he wanted Daniel to see him a certain way.

To think well of him.

Jack turned to regard her, holding one hand up to shield his eyes from the sun. The gesture deepened the shadows on his face and Sam shivered.

"There are just some things I'll never talk about." He said simply. "It's not because I don't trust you or Daniel… I trust and care about both of you probably more than you'll ever understand. You'll just have to let me have this one thing." His hand hadn't left her shoulder but it was no longer an extension of his worry. His thumb followed her collarbone to the hollow of her throat and rested lightly there.

Jack seemed to visibly shake himself and his hand dropped away. "I'm sick of waiting for this uprising that's supposed to happen. If there's a rebellion afoot, I'm just not seeing it." He turned and started back towards the small ring of tents that marked the boundary of their temporary home.

"We know it happens, Sir. We just have to be patient."

"Yeah, well, what if we were the ones that started the damn thing in the first place and just sitting back doing nothing is actually what breaks history?"

Sam stopped dead, the blanket she had been carrying slipping from her hand.

Jack finally noticed that she wasn't following him and turned.

"What?"

xxxxxxx

-1996-

Doctor Daniel Jackson stood in front of the empty lecture theatre, his face burning. He started slowly gathering his notes and slides together.

They'd left.

By ones and twos and then en-masse.

They'd just... left.

There had been rapt expressions when he'd first entered the room. As he talked, showing slides and presenting his theories, he'd seen annoyance and vague embarrassment creep over their faces like a pervasive shadow. Still, no one had wanted to be the first to leave. They'd been rooted to their chairs out of sheer politeness. A young girl of maybe twenty, a student, had finally been the first to bolt. That retreat had marked an exodus.

They hadn't jeered or booed or thrown things. They were academics. Their leaving spoke volumes more than any rotten tomatoes they could hurl.

Daniel pushed through the glass doors at the entrance to the lecture theatre out into pouring rain. His glasses were fogged and useless within seconds. He dropped the beaten brown leather bags that were his only possessions in the world to the ground and stood, waiting.

He saw a large, black car slow to a crawl along the curb, and then speed up and away.

Daniel stood silent in the rain, feeling strangely bereft.


	4. Ripple 4

Rating: Chapter4 Parental Guidance

Disclaimer: DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and  
places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret  
Productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment No monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognised characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.  
In a nutshell - enjoy but don't sue.

Warnings - Set at end of S8.

xxxxxx

Daniel is more tired than he has ever been in his life, but it is a mental exhaustion rather than a physical one.

When his parents died, he missed them, but he now knew he'd been too young to fully appreciate the loss.

Not like the raw wound that losing Jack, Sam and Teal'c has caused.

"You will see them again my friend." Katep says, one hand squeezing Daniel's shoulder. He has been Daniel's constant shadow, understanding in a way that no one else can explain how he knows he must keep the other man from withdrawing into himself. Katep wishes fervently for freedom and has a deep understanding that any chance of it will be lost forever if they do not tread carefully, if they lose the stranger that speaks as if he were born among them.

"I'd like to think so." Daniel is wearing four sets of dog tags now, close to his heart. He knows he should let go of all of them but can't bring himself to.

Not yet.

His hand absently clasps the metal, pressing it against his skin hard enough to leave marks. Katep hears the slight jingle and smiles, placing his hand over Daniel's.

"They will come back to you. I may have false gods, but there are still things in which I have faith."

xxxxxxx

"He's up to something." Sam was watching the small cave entrance that Jack had once again retreated into. He'd now posted one of the village children as a guard to warn him if anyone approached. The children adored him and followed him around for most of the day, so he had little trouble finding a grubby kneed urchin for the task. Sam had found out from experience that if she approached when there was a tiny bouncer there would be screams.

She had even tried bribing the little brats.

No dice.

"DanielJackson has remarked that not having O'Neill constantly underfoot is a wondrous thing. Do you not feel the same ColonelCarter?" Sam had opened her mouth to protest when she noticed that Teal'c was giving her a sly, sideways smile. She smacked him on the shoulder and scowled. Teal'c's chuckles made her scowl deepen.

"I'm in the past... in _Egypt_ and still a victim of malicious gossip." She grumped, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Indeed. You are in the past in Egypt. Should not the constraints of your rank be forfeit?"

Sam blinked.

She opened her mouth.

She blinked again.

"I... you... we..." Sam raised her hand and flapped it in a helpless gesture. Her face firmed. "We have more pressing matters to deal with Teal'c." She snapped. Teal'c raised an eyebrow and inclined his head.

"Indeed."

"Not least of which is the huge spanner the General has thrown in the works by proposing that maybe we're responsible for the uprising that leads to the Goa'uld leaving Earth in the first place. I'm having a real 'Back to the Future' paradox moment here. If we do something and we weren't supposed to, then we could effectively damage our timeline to a point where humans might end up as... well, it boggles the mind." Sam rubbed her temple as if the problem was making her head hurt, which Teal'c suspected it was. "If we sit back and don't do anything and the uprising was actually our doing then we might be condemning the human race to thousands of years of slavery, or worse, final annihilation." Sam threw up her hands.

"I believe the term 'damned if we do, damned if we don't' is appropriate." Teal'c agreed.

"Ugh." Sam stood from her cross legged vigil and stretched expansively, digging her hands into the small of her back with a sigh.

"Hi guys, what are we doing?" Daniel had appeared behind them and looked expectantly from Teal'c to Sam. He was squinting in the late afternoon sun because he didn't have his glasses on. He had remarked that the pair of glasses he currently had might have to last him a lifetime and therefore only wore them when he needed to read, placing them reverently into a box Katep had supplied at other times.

Jack's new favourite game had become 'threatening the glasses' and Daniel's new pastime was finding new and interesting places to hide them.

"I believe we are spying on O'Neill." Teal'c said which earned him another shoulder smack from Sam.

"We're trying to puzzle out whether we get involved with the uprising or not." Sam said, deliberately turning her back on the small temple entrance.

"While spying?" Daniel said and he and Teal'c shared a grin. Sam was contemplating wrestling them both into a headlock when Jack finally emerged.

"Hey kids." He greeted, rubbing his hair to dislodge the vast amount of sand and dust that he accumulated. "What are we doing?"

Sam flushed red as Teal'c and Daniel snorted.

xxxxxxxx

-1997-

"Kill them."

Teal'c, First Prime of Apophis heard the order and hesitated. There were screams as people fled to the far wall of the cell, some instinct driving them further from the Jaffa although it was futile.

They were in a killing jar.

There was the sound of staff weapons opening and Teal'c's Jaffa waited for him to give the order to fire.

Still, he hesitated.

He scanned the people cowering against the far wall, but couldn't fathom what he was looking for. His eyes would rest on any older, hard faced men in the mass of bodies, but would move on.

None of them were who he was looking for.

Teal'c started, cold dread washing over him. He _had_ been looking for someone and had no idea why. He felt the symbiote in his pouch roil as if in protest.

As if it could sense betrayal.

Teal'c's face hardened. He had not wished for this life, but it was his and he would do his duty.

He dropped his hand and the sound of staff blasts washed over him.


	5. Ripple 5

The locals had run screaming when the single Jaffa had entered their tent city, but Daniel watches him approach, arms crossed over his chest.

This is Bra'em, a Jaffa he suspected was the downfall of his team. Seeing the man now enter the encampment with no others and his weapon down, Daniel is willing to believe that this wasn't the case. It's possibly a setup to snare Daniel, but he thinks wryly that he has little to lose but his life, and he isn't that careful about it these days.

Also, Bra'em knew about Daniel and although there had been more vigorous searches in the days following his team's capture and subsequent execution, it didn't seem as if they were looking for him specifically.

Despite this, Daniel draws a hand inside his robe to rest on his zat. He also shifts a little so that he can reach the knife in his boot quickly. It may be his time, but Daniel feels it would dishonour Jack to not go down fighting.

Dishonour them all.

"I had expected to be torn limb from limb on my approach." Bra'em says. He has a slight but wiry build with large green eyes and brown hair. Despite this, the way he moves and holds himself reminds Daniel so much of Teal'c that he aches.

"And yet you came." Daniel sighs, understanding all to well the suicidal urge that creeps up on you when you have failed spectacularly.

xxxxxxx

"You're driving her crazy. You do know that...right?" Sam had found a Canopic jar and was carefully placing the camera with their precious recordings inside. There had been a layer of plastic backing in the camera case that she had torn free and wrapped around it to keep out dust and damp. Teal'c was holding the jar forward and slightly tilted while Sam edged the camera inside. They had all been terrified that a simple accident would render the camera useless and their whole journey would have been for nothing. Both Daniel and Jack had been watching the operation tensely and wouldn't be relaxing until the camera and ZPM were safely buried.

Jack now looked at Daniel who had his eyebrows raised quizzically. "I'm not trying to," Jack replied, but the smirk that escaped shortly after belied any remorse he might have been feeling. Daniel snorted.

"What _have_ you been doing?" Daniel was hoping to catch Jack off guard by asking the question simply. He and Teal'c might have been teasing Sam about her persistence, but he had to admit that his curiosity was well and truly perked.

"If I can't tell Sam yet, I can't tell any of you." Jack said, lifting one of his shoulders in a half-shrug, like he was stating a universal truth.

Daniel nodded. So far as any of them was concerned, he was.

"But... crazy you say?" Jack slumped further down on the makeshift couch, dropping his head back with a thump. He rolled it so he could see Daniel. The other man sighed and mimicked Jack's slouch, suspecting he was about to be gently interrogated.

"Yes, Jack. Considering how bored you and Sam have been, it's a nice distraction though." Daniel smiled, his eyes drifting back to the painfully slow operation before them. The camera was now halfway in.

Square peg, round hole.

He could feel Jack's eyes on him, assessing. Jack wanted to ask him something but wasn't sure how. Daniel decided to be gracious.

"Of course she does." He said.

Jack started. "Does what?" He said a little too loudly and both Sam and Teal'c glanced at them. Jack waved his arm, prompting them to resume what they'd been doing. Teal'c focused on the jar again immediately, but Sam took a few beats to watch both men, a mixture of concern and curiosity on her face. She finally shrugged and resumed her task.

"Does what?" Jack repeated, his voice now lowered to a comical whisper.

"Whatever you're not sure she does." Daniel said, turning his whole body to Jack and raising his eyebrows till they nearly touched his hairline. "She _does_."

Jack slumped further down, rubbing a hand across his temple. "Daniel, I have no idea what you're talking about." Jack threw up his hands in mock-exasperation, but he was grinning from ear to ear.

"Crap!" Sam exclaimed, making both men jump to their feet.

"What?" They exclaimed in unison.

Sam had flushed red and Teal'c was chuckling softly.

"My thumb is stuck."

xxxxxxx

-1998-

"I'm sorry son."

Daniel was sitting in a cracked office chair, looking at his last hope at salvaging any part of his archaeological career, and hearing a door in his mind firmly slam shut.

"All I need is an assistant's position. I'll work my ass off, you know that." A few weeks ago Daniel would have cringed at the prospect of begging, but that point had come and well and truly gone. At this point he would get down on his knees if he had to, just to have sand and dirt run through his fingers. He felt as if he was suffocating in the city.

He'd never been subjected to it for so long.

The man across the desk from him, an ageing professor by the name of Frakes, sighed heavily. "Daniel, you're a good kid, but you're also a laughing stock. I know you came here because you thought I might be desperate for workers-" Frakes held up his hand when Daniel opened his mouth to protest. "But Daniel, my funding is on a knife edge as it is. I'm sorry."

"I wouldn't-"

"Your work has been published, Daniel. God knows why anyone would have allowed you to do that. You killed your career." Frakes stood, indicating that it was time for Daniel to go. Daniel stood, scrubbing a hand through his hair wearily.

"It's a damn shame too. I was always expecting to have to come to you for a job some day." Frakes said, genuine disappointment in his tone.

Daniel had learned to recognise it.

Disappointment had been a constant companion for the last few months.


	6. Ripple 6

Disclaimer – Don't own, don't sue!

He smiles as the woman places the steaming bowl in front of him and wonders how he could have ever thought she looked like Sha're. He remembers her though, long fingers stroking his face at the very moment...

He bites his lip when she looks up at him. There is an invitation in her smile. Jack had always teased him about being clueless with women, but Daniel wasn't as bad as Jack had always assumed. He just seemed to have a knack for avoiding anything more than he was able to give.

"Thank you A'nae." He says and offers her a friendly smile, with nothing underneath it. Her expression falters a little and then she nods slightly, withdrawing.

Katep is looking at him with a mixture of concern and curiosity. "Why did you change your mind?" He asks. "You were the one that was against it."

Daniel sighs, bringing the steaming bowl of broth he has been given to his nose and inhaling. It's wonderful and spicy and he has no idea how it's made or what of.

He thinks it's probably better if he doesn't.

"I think Jack may have been right. He just might have been a little early," Daniel says.

xxxxxxx

"Do you really think we can trust them?" Jack has his arms folded across his chest and is looking both excited and wary.

"We have no way of knowing for sure, O'Neill. We have to decide if the gain outweighs the risk." Practical as ever, Teal'c cut to the meat of the matter in few words.

"I'm still not sure we should be doing this." Sam was biting her bottom lip. She'd already chewed her nails ragged.

"It's gone." Daniel announced, striding into the small tent and throwing himself dramatically onto their makeshift couch. He yelped and jumped up, rubbing his backside and scowling at the bowie knife that he been left on the seat. He turned his scowl on Jack who was suppressing a chuckle with little success.

"What is?" Sam asked for all of them.

"The Puddle Jumper. They moved it and none of the locals know where. It could still be onworld but it would be like..." Daniel flailed a hand, searching for the right words.

"Looking for a ship in the desert?" Jack supplied, a defeated sigh escaping him. "Well that's just dandy!"

"I believe we should still pursue our current course of action," Teal'c said.

"Well, of course we should. I just would have liked a ride home afterward." Jack grumped, picking up his bowie knife before settling himself onto the couch. Daniel looked from Teal'c to Jack and back again.

"Sorry, did I miss something?"

"Teal'c's made some contacts with like-minded Jaffa. We're well on the way to our little rebellion." Jack said, clapping his hands together. Sam was still a little pensive and she now looked to Daniel as an ally in her protests. He was more than ready to oblige.

"Are you sure that's wise?"

"Do you not believe we are the instigators of the uprising DanielJackson?" Teal'c asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Don't get me wrong." Daniel clarified, raising a finger to his lip and rubbing just under his nose. Jack always thought the gesture was to kick start Daniel's brain into devil's advocate mode. "I think Jack's right-"

"Can I get that in writing?"

"Jack, for chrissakes. Anyway, I think we probably are instrumental in the uprising. It's a little too much of a coincidence that our arrival coincides with a rebellion that overthrows a ruling Goa'uld, but I'm not sure if we should involve the Jaffa."

"Indeed." Teal'c said, the one word and the tone used communicating just how much he didn't like where Daniel was going. Daniel smiled tightly.

"Don't get me wrong, Teal'c. The Jaffa rebellion is instrumental in turning the tide against the Goa'uld... in the _future_. We just don't know if their faith has been distabilised enough at present to risk involving them, no matter how sincere they might seem. Master Brai'tac's teachings led you to question a pretty established faith system. Do you know when he started to question his own?"

"I do not." Teal'c said, real regret in his voice.

"The Jaffa weren't allowed much in the way of written history, but they would have told stories, Father to son, mother to daughter. The Tau'ri were legend and perhaps because they cast out their God. A little bit of doubt can fester and grow and be passed on from generation to generation."

"That's a bit of a leap, Daniel." Jack admonished.

"So is believing that a man is willing to turn his back on his God, unless he already has some pretty strong doubts."

"Why do you defend your people and your world DanielJackson? Is it not because you believe deep down, despite the atrocities and hatred that your kind so often visits upon each other, that they are intrinsically good?"

Daniel's face drained of colour. "Yes." He said in a small voice.

"Allow me to believe the same of my people." Teal'c said stonily. He then turned and left their tent.

xxxxxx

-1999-

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG.

The word kept running through her head like a mantra. There was something just basically wrong about where she was and what was happening. She supposed everyone who watched a loved one wither slowly away until there was nothing left would believe that, but somehow she just knew, on some deep level, that this was not supposed to be happening.

"He's dying Sam. Come home." The phone call she'd received from her brother at three in the morning two days ago had had her packing a bag and heading out the door in less than ten minutes. She regretted that she had drifted so far away from her family. The knowledge of just how much she had isolated herself was like a hot blade to the stomach.

She'd watched the pale, thin shell of a man that had once been her father moan and gasp his way through the last few days of his life.

She couldn't let go of the idea that it was all a fallacy and someone would eventually tell her that it had been an elaborate joke.

Ha, ha Sam, we really got you good this time.

A hand sought her own, the skin paper thin and stretched and the fingers mere bones. "I'm glad you're here." Her father's voice rasped. She didn't even recognise it any more.

"Something's supposed to happen." She sighed, but he was already asleep again, knocked unconscious by the virtual cocktail of drugs being pumped through his body via the IV.

"Did you say something?" Her brother was in the chair on the other side of the bed and had been dozing.

"Nothing." She said with a sad smile. "Just talking to myself."


	7. Ripple 7

Bra'en sits before Daniel, checking over the three staff weapons laid out before him. Daniel has a zat in his hands.

It feels odd after so long.

"You have managed to obtain quite a number of weapons?" Bra'en is looking at Daniel with both respect and fascination. Bra'en had assumed that the warriors had all been killed, leaving a man of education and little else. He watches Daniel flick the zat with a practised and almost careless ease, point it at the wall, and then click it closed again.

"Yes. The Jaffa have become complacent again, thinking these people have broken backs. They may be bent in supplication, but these people aren't broken quite yet."

"You say that my people shall be free also?" Bra'en's voice is carefully neutral but Daniel catches the barely contained joy.

He feels that to tell the man before him just how far off this freedom is will harm their relationship, but he also cannot bring himself to lie.

"Yes. Regretfully not in your lifetime, but it happens." Daniel concentrates on the next zat to be tested, but his mind keeps circling back to the same dread.

What if they had already irrevocably changed the timeline?

What if he had no more insight into future events than Bra'en himself?

What if?

What if?

What if?

xxxxxxxx

Daniel was turning an alarming shade of purple and both Sam and Jack watched him, Sam with concern and Jack with annoyance.

"Just what the hell is so funny?" Jack demanded as Daniel gasped for breath, bracing himself against the nearest wall to stop from collapsing to the ground in hopeless giggles. Daniel finally subsided enough to be able to stand upright again, only to set himself off by glancing at what Jack had just shown them.

"I think we've lost Daniel for good, Sir." Sam grinned, fighting the temptation to break into giggles herself. Daniel was now hiccuping and moaning about his abused sides while rubbing a sleeve across his streaming eyes.

Jack was positively fuming.

"I didn't do it that badly." Jack snapped.

Daniel held up his hands in mock surrender. "It's not that. You did a really... great... job." Daniel breathed in deeply to stave off further laughter and although it was a near thing, he finally managed to reign himself under control. "Who did you get to help you, anyway?" He asked, hiccuping a final time.

"Arackei, why?"

"Uhuh. Did he know you were showing it to us today?"

"Ye-es." Jack nodded, one brow rising.

"I don't suppose you've seen him today, at all?" Daniel's eyes were now full of sympathetic amusement. Jack's face was growing stormy and Sam suspected that he was finally getting the joke, even though she was still at a loss.

"What does it actually say?" Jack asked, rubbing his forehead in resignation. Sam was watching both men. Daniel seemed to be alternate between enjoying himself immensely and also worrying about hurting Jack's feelings. Jack had gone from pissed to annoyed and then had progressed to defeated. She was sure there would be an upswing back to anger at any moment, if only she knew what was going on.

"What's it supposed to say?" Daniel said, indicating what had gotten him rendered him unable to communicate for ten minutes.

In a small section of the temple Jack had been frequenting for the past few days, was a line of what looked like very carefully rendered Goa'uld writing. Sam had never understood how Daniel could wrestle meaning out of the elaborate mixture of lines and stylised pictures. She had asked to be taught, but an hour into her first lesson she was having flashbacks to her failed attempts at French, German and Mandarin. She felt tremendously guilty about quitting though and had dutifully turned up to Daniel's office every Tuesday afternoon for eight weeks, before Daniel realised that she was going through the motions without truly retaining anything.

The next Tuesday they'd gone for coffee instead.

Sam realised with a start that this was what Jack had been working on and the characters painstakingly rendered must have taken longer than she'd suspected.

"Daniel!" Jack snapped. He was beginning to seethe again.

"Honestly, what is it supposed to say?"

Jack sighed, and his eyes darted to Sam. "It's my resignation." He said. His lips thinned into a line. "At least, that's what it's supposed to be."

"You're what?" Sam exclaimed.

"I just wanted to, you know, officially retire. I couldn't do... anything... before I did." He said cryptically, waving a hand in exasperation.

"Anything?" Daniel said, his gaze also ticking to Sam. His eyebrows rose and he chuckled. "Ah, sorry, right. Why didn't you just write it on a piece of paper?"

"Because you-" Jack stabbed a finger at Daniel's chest. "-wouldn't give me any." Sam remembered that particular conversation, shortly after they had learned they were going to be stranded, possibly for years. Daniel had accused Jack of just wanting to doodle and Jack had vehemently denied it but wouldn't say what he wanted it for. That particular disagreement had ended up with the two men having to be separated by Teal'c and Daniel then tearing out of the tent, his notebook clutched to his chest.

Sam seemed to recall that was about the same time Jack had started hiding Daniel's glasses, whenever he could lay his hands on them.

"Besides." Jack shrugged. "I thought this would be kind of cool." He looked at Daniel's expression and his eyebrows drew together in a frown. "I, of course, stand corrected."

"Why do you need to retire?" Sam asked, although a small part of her knew the answer.

"I just do. I did in the time loop even though..." Jack trailed off, flushing red to his roots. Sam didn't think she'd ever actually seen him blush before.

"You did what in the time loop?" Sam asked slowly. They had been briefed about it afterward and although she knew Jack and Teal'c had both learned a language and saved them all from forever repeating the same day, she had suspected that Jack would not be able to resist taking a few loops off. Both she and Daniel had tried to get out of him and Teal'c just what they had done other than the professional, but neither man had admitted anything.

"Absolutely nothing. Okay pottery and maybe a little golf, but absolutely nothing else." He said curtly, although the blush betrayed him by intensifying.

"Anyway," Daniel cut in, graciously rescuing Jack to make up for his uncontrollable earlier giggles. "Unless I'm really wrong about the military, I would assume retiring doesn't have much to do with your mother and a camel's testicles."

Jack's mouth dropped open. "I'm going to kill him." He roared, charging out of the temple.

Sam turned to Daniel, who was wearing a grin and waggling his eyebrows.

"Oh, shutup!" She snapped.

xxxxxxx

-2000-

Jack has a boat in the harbour, a beer and not a care in the world.

He was wondering why, in this case, he was so miserable.

He put it down to Kawalsky's visit a few months ago. He'd been in a funk ever since. He didn't think" he wanted to come out of retirement, but when Kawalsky had been talking about his latest mission, Jack had felt a pang like he was missing something big. They'd reminisced, they'd drunk a lot and then Kawalsky had gone, leaving Jack feeling strangely disconnected.

Jack was on the boardwalk and dialling the familiar number without remembering how he'd gotten there.

"Hello?" A cool, female voice answered.

Jack racked his memory, dredging a name for somewhere in the depths. "Angela? It's Jack, I think we met-"

"Oh, hi Jack! I have a few friends who are still wondering when I'll set them up with you." Angela said, her voice bright and cheerful. Jack was reminded of Sarah more than he'd like and realised he hadn't heard her voice in over a year.

He chuckled dutifully. "Is Kawalsky there?" He asked. He knew it might be rude not to at least pretend to banter for a little while, but he was losing his nerve.

"You flyboys!" Janet sighed. "I'm Kawalsky as well, remember?"

"Is he there?" Jack's voice was tight and although he'd wanted to keep it light, he heard the change in Angela's tone which meant that his desperation was bleeding over the phone line.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I just need to talk to him." Jack tried to inject false cheer and thought he may have actually sounded worse.

"I'm sorry, he isn't. He left for Panama about four days ago. He'll be back on the twenty-seventh. I'll tell him to call you."

Twenty-seventh, Jack thought.

Three weeks away.

"No, that's fine." Jack said. His voice was normalising and he supposed it was because he was losing some of the driving need he'd had to talk to Kawalsky. It was like waking from a nightmare. You sweated and your heart pounded, but the fear slowly ebbed away with the dawning of a new day. He was starting to have trouble even remembering what had prompted him to call.

"Jack, if you really need him, I'm sure you have contacts that could put you in touch." Angela was still sounding concerned, but the edge was softening.

"No, really, it's fine. I'll catch up with him at some point when he's back. Tell him I called and he owes me a beer, yeah?"

"Okay. You take care." Angela said, genuine warmth in her tone. It made Jack miss people, but only for a little while. With people there were invariably questions and feelings and that look they got when they found out your kid had died.

No thanks.

Jack clicked off, feeling vaguely silly. He was now relieved Kawalsky hadn't been there because he couldn't honestly say for sure why he'd rung.


	8. The Tide

He should be surprised when he walks into the tent and sees three people that are supposed to be dead, but he isn't.

Daniel takes a moment to just breathe in their presence. He'd been without them for so long that it was almost too much to of a sensory overload to have them be... _there_.

Everything is just that little bit wrong though and Daniel realises with a pang that the people before him are strangers.

The current Samantha Carter looks jubilant at his arrival and Daniel watches her nervously bounce from foot to foot, but there is something else mixed in with the happiness and Daniel can't place it on this woman. He had always admired Sam's grace and confidence and both those things are oddly missing. Teal'c is dressed in full Jaffa armour and is standing at attention. Jack is casually leaning and looking his usual self, but there is sadness in his eyes that Daniel recognises from when they first met, and Daniel is worried to see it.

"Well, this can't be a good sign." He sighs.

"Why's that?" Jack asks, clearly looking annoyed that Daniel isn't as pleased to see them as they are to see him.

"Where am I?" Sam had clearly recognised him but Daniel knew the fact he was missing didn't bode well. He mused wryly that he must have had a knack for dying, no matter what the timeline.

"Ancient Egypt?" Daniel almost snaps at Jack, but he stomps on it because he's also relieved that there is definitely some of _his _Jack buried in the sad shell of a man before him.

"No, I mean the me from your timeline." He clarifies, smiling tightly. There is a moment where despair floats across Sam's face and Jack looks guilty.

"I killed you." Teal'c states, matter-of-factly.

"Why?"

"You were a Goa'uld spy." Teal'c answers in the same tone.

Daniel shrugs. "Good reason."

"It was horrible." Sam sighs dramatically and Daniel glances at her for just a moment, wondering just who the hell this woman is and what happened to her to make her so dramatically different from the Sam he loved. It horrifies Daniel to feel slightly irritated by this Sam's presence.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Why are you here?"

xxxxxxx

When everything went to hell, it went to hell fast.

Teal'c was spotted by a Jaffa patrol and taken, although it took twelve men to finally bring him down and only because by then he was barely alive. The twelve year old boy and fifteen year old girl he'd been with, helping them to fix their shelter, had been tortured for only a short time before admitting that there were three other strangers that had accompanied him.

The Jaffa now knew to look for an older man, a woman with hair the colour of the sun and a younger man who could speak like a native but had the blue eyes of a demon.

A few hours later, Sam had been at the oasis gathering water. Out of the corner of her eye she watched the six Jaffa close by with mounting tension. Furthest from her mind was that they were there for her. She was worried instead that they might have thought to take one of the women she was with. When she leant over to retrieve one of the pots of water, her dog tags had slipped free from her robes. All too late, as the Jaffa descended on her with a cry, did she realise that she had been the target.

They yanked her hood from her head, exposing her blonde hair to the light of day. She was beaten ruthlessly as the other women she had been with scattered with terrified cries.

Jack would have been harder to spot, if he hadn't been cresting the hill just as Sam was taken down. He had hurtled towards the Jaffa, pulling his P-90 free from his robes. A tiny, rational part of his mind had advised him to stay hidden so he could rescue her later, but that part had been drowned out by his horror at watching an armoured foot connect solidly with the small of Sam's back, tossing her like a rag doll.

If it hadn't been for the twelve additional Jaffa lying in wait, Jack might have had a chance.

Daniel had watched as a sobbing woman tore into the encampment, heading for Katep.

Katep had looked up at Daniel and he had risen, dread washing over him.

A Jaffa patrol had been only a few minutes behind the woman but Daniel had been dragged to an underground bunker, hidden away with the children and the youngest of the women. He huddled in the dark, his face burning in shame and sorrow, knowing that his friends would be tortured for hours on end to disclose his whereabouts and also knowing that they never would.

The public executions, only three days later, had been a last ditch effort to flush him out. It had nearly worked. Daniel had been held forcibly down, screaming and thrashing, as one after the other his friends met their fate. Later, when the Jaffa had questioned them, the villagers had told of how the blue-eyed man had wandered into the desert, driven mad with grief.

They left out the part where he was brought back.

xxxxxxx

"Are you absolutely certain about them, Colonel?" General Hammond looked from Doctor Daniel Jackson, to Doctor Samantha Carter and then back to Jack O'Neill.

Jack followed his gaze, watching as Daniel fiddled for the millionth time with his helmet and Sam winced, struggling to keep upright with the overburdened pack she was carrying. He had watched as Daniel had helped her on with it the first time and seen her topple backwards.

He hadn't laughed like that in a while.

Jack knew it was crazy and that these two people were horribly ill equipped for what lay ahead, but something deep inside had woken up when he'd seen them sitting in his boat, wearing the lifejackets he had forced on them even though they were still sitting at the dock.

Something he had thought long dead.

Jack had absolutely no idea how to explain this to the bald General now standing in front of him, eyeing the fidgeting civilians with well-founded concern.

"No Sir!" He said simply.


End file.
